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First Post - iBook G3
- Thread starter Kirk Boragine
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Does it?
Maybe I had my cats mixed up then. I thought that didn't come until Tiger. Thanks for correcting me.
For any usage today, it is a toss up between OS X Tiger 10.4 and OS X Leopard 10.5. Clearly, being a G3, Tiger is going to be the only option. Browsing is going to be limited to TenFourFox, and @eyoungren's tweak thread will make it usable. Bluhell Firewall is a must for getting online with any G3 or G4. When it comes to music production on a G3, you are going to be limited to OS 9 class software or Audacity. There is no feasible solution to my knowledge that runs under OS X and on is usable on a G3. Remember that the more background processes that you add, the harder it becomes on that G3.
Hi Altemose,
I don't ask too much from my DAWs. Basic demo stuff is what I do. Touch of reverb here and there. Usually 4 tracks is good enough. Then I mix it down to an mp3. I expect GarageBand to work, although from what I remember it keeps all training wheels firmly planted on the ground and adds effect / compression as it sees fit. Not something I really like there. But we will see. I'm starting to think music production is all I will get out of this, whether it's on 9, Jag, Panther or Tiger.
Although I'm already considering getting a newer 2008/2009 MacBook to use for everything. Prices are reasonable. I have a 2 year old Dell laptop I just acquired and fixed as well. Considering putting mac money (Gasp) into it for faster SSD drive and memory. But man I do like Macs. Also like to stay up to date with current software, also like to use old gear...yeah, I'm a mess -all over the board. I have an iPhone 3gs I charged yesterday just to play with it. The sound was about as nice as I remember coming out of that one bottom speaker. If it weren't for the carrier lock I'd probably switch over to it now and then. The simplicity of the Calendar app for instance is a thing of beauty. Some years ago I fired up the Mac Plus just to be nostalgic. I like it all, lol. Well, to be honest...the newest stuff doesn't interest me much. Not much to adjust / fix/ tweak or consider.
But yeah, thanks to the people here and some research on the net I pretty much know what to expect from the G3. I had a G4 myself back when it was new. I have a Wallstreet in the closet which got in to my wine one night and hasn't woken up since. Love the keyboard on that thing. It'd be nice to get that going too. Ah well, lots to do. Even if it turns out to be a fun distraction, the G3 will be worth my time whatever I end up doing with it.
I don't ask too much from my DAWs. Basic demo stuff is what I do. Touch of reverb here and there. Usually 4 tracks is good enough. Then I mix it down to an mp3. I expect GarageBand to work, although from what I remember it keeps all training wheels firmly planted on the ground and adds effect / compression as it sees fit. Not something I really like there. But we will see. I'm starting to think music production is all I will get out of this, whether it's on 9, Jag, Panther or Tiger.
Although I'm already considering getting a newer 2008/2009 MacBook to use for everything. Prices are reasonable. I have a 2 year old Dell laptop I just acquired and fixed as well. Considering putting mac money (Gasp) into it for faster SSD drive and memory. But man I do like Macs. Also like to stay up to date with current software, also like to use old gear...yeah, I'm a mess -all over the board. I have an iPhone 3gs I charged yesterday just to play with it. The sound was about as nice as I remember coming out of that one bottom speaker. If it weren't for the carrier lock I'd probably switch over to it now and then. The simplicity of the Calendar app for instance is a thing of beauty. Some years ago I fired up the Mac Plus just to be nostalgic. I like it all, lol. Well, to be honest...the newest stuff doesn't interest me much. Not much to adjust / fix/ tweak or consider.
But yeah, thanks to the people here and some research on the net I pretty much know what to expect from the G3. I had a G4 myself back when it was new. I have a Wallstreet in the closet which got in to my wine one night and hasn't woken up since. Love the keyboard on that thing. It'd be nice to get that going too. Ah well, lots to do. Even if it turns out to be a fun distraction, the G3 will be worth my time whatever I end up doing with it.
@Kirk Boragine I was not saying these things about the G3 to discourage you, as up until a few months ago, I was actually going online with a 900 MHz iBook G3. The software selection and capabilities really begin to open up with the G4 and G5 systems, while you still can run the same operating system.
Thank you. I was so excited when I first was told I was getting it. Plus it's got all original everything and has been cared for and lightly used. No issues in almost 15 years. Gotta love that.
Then I started thinking about some of the posts and became a little discouraged. Now I'm just coming to terms with realistic expectations. I'm a patient person so speed of system isn't everything to me. If it can do what I need to do I'll be thrilled.
I've just always loved the Mac language, ever since the first ones arrived at my place of work way back when. Copying applications of floppies just to prepare for my first Mac lol. Stockpiling my software. Since then I've not always been able to afford them and PCs have been more prevalent, broken machines being handed down to me, older stuff people figured was obsolete and I'd take them and fix 'em up. I went out of my way to hunt down the Wallstreet second hand. I'm a Mac guy at heart, and here I type on a Win machine. Ah well, it's all good. Next month I will be the proud owner of a functional Mac once again. Cheers!
The key to using any PowerPC Mac in this day and age is the software selection. Obviously the G3 processor is going to limit you to OS X Tiger 10.4, which is not a bad thing. When I still had my iBook G3, I used TenFourFox and Office 2004 (with the XML pack installed). The machine was quick enough to get online and post on here and browse very basic sites as well as write basic documents and spreadsheets. I also used it to pull pictures off a network drive and print them to my Canon printer, which surprisingly was still supported. It did these tasks well, but if you were ever looking to make an iBook a daily use machine then a G4 is going to be the way to go. Even a 400 MHz PowerBook G4 Titanium is leaps and bounds ahead of a 900 MHz iBook G3 in capability.
I'd really recommend an iBook G4 for what you want to do. The snow iBook G3s also had very common GPU issues, I've got three with it.
I wouldn't say common as much as I would say guaranteed. The logic board failure on those iBooks is guaranteed by the shoddy junk they put on the graphics card. And unless you're willing to bake your iBook, the issue will never go away.
Fully agree. A cheap iBookG4 1.2/1.33GHz with dual-boot Leopard/Tiger&Classic is more fun, even if it comes to real work. Plus there's no hassle about WLAN encryption with the inbuilt AirportExtreme.
I'd use the Clamshell especially for booting into os9. That's the real think.
The iBook G3s did have a really high failure rate for their GPUs, but statistically speaking it was around 50%-51% for the 700 and 800 MHz models. The iBook being referenced has a 36% failure rate on the logic board, which is still unacceptable but significantly better than the other models. According to my research, 41% of iBooks from that generation required repair during their second or third year, which dropped to 6% of units requiring repair after that point. The data was collected by MacInTouch as part of a voluntary survey.
The short synopsis of this data is that the iBooks that are going to fail as a result of design fault are generally long gone. Granted, the machines that are still running are at risk of failing due to a faulty logic board, but no more than any other component. Looking at statistics, Apple laptops do not have the best track record for parts reliability. At this stage in the game, anything can go on these old Macs due to age and use just as commonly as a design fault in the board.
Congratulations on your old mac! If you want GB, look for GB2 - anything newer will suck on the ibook g3. Look for the iLife05 DVD. It'll be on there. Go to the macintosh garden and have a look too. There is a lot of neat music production stuff over there and all for the right price. CubaseLE v1.08 is another good daw choice if you can find it and it will run on Tiger. Audacity is yet another good free supported daw for basic stuff - IIRC it does have a reverb plugin.
I assume you're using a digital AI to record your tracks? Something FW400 will be loads better as usb1.1 on the ibook is mind numbing-ly slow. I'm a fan of presonus gear but everyone has their favs. I think you'll be fine doing basic 2-4 track stuff. It'll be slower and real time FX/monitoring via the ibook is probably off the table, but it's totally doable and you'll adapt to its limitations - the nature of the beast and part of the fun I think in making great music. As a few have said already, many an artist has made great music on lesser gear than what you have right there.
Best of luck to you. Post the first tune you make on it for us to have a listen
I assume you're using a digital AI to record your tracks? Something FW400 will be loads better as usb1.1 on the ibook is mind numbing-ly slow. I'm a fan of presonus gear but everyone has their favs. I think you'll be fine doing basic 2-4 track stuff. It'll be slower and real time FX/monitoring via the ibook is probably off the table, but it's totally doable and you'll adapt to its limitations - the nature of the beast and part of the fun I think in making great music. As a few have said already, many an artist has made great music on lesser gear than what you have right there.
Best of luck to you. Post the first tune you make on it for us to have a listen
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Thanks for all the good information there. Firewire is definitely the way to go on this machine I agree. I had an old firewire interface at one point, I'll have to get another if I decide to record with this. Thanks for the GB version advice as well. The other apps are ones I'll probably check out. Been to the Garden as well. Kinda tricky to know what/where to find stuff there. Oh, downloading some Presonus software for this notebook of mine I just repaired as we speak. I also use Ableton, Cubase and Sonar at times.Congratulations on your old mac! If you want GB, look for GB2 - anything newer will suck on the ibook g3. Look for the iLife05 DVD. It'll be on there. Go to the macintosh garden and have a look too. There is a lot of neat music production stuff over there and all for the right price. CubaseLE v1.07 is another good daw choice if you can find it and it will run on Tiger. Audacity is yet another good free supported daw for basic stuff - IIRC it does have a reverb plugin.
I assume you're using a digital AI to record your tracks? Something FW400 will be loads better as usb1.1 on the ibook is mind numbing-ly slow. I'm a fan of presonus gear but everyone has their favs. I think you'll be fine doing basic 2-4 track stuff. It'll be slower and real time FX/monitoring via the ibook is probably off the table, but it's totally doable and you'll adapt to its limitations - the nature of the beast and part of the fun I think in making great music. As a few have said already, many an artist has made great music on lesser gear than what you have right there.
Best of luck to you. Post the first tune you make on it for us to have a listen
I'll be getting the G3 in a few weeks. We'll see
I'll be getting the G3 in a few weeks. We'll see
If the novelty of running a Mac that old is worth it to you, then I recommend that you look at a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4. I have one and it is an extremely capable machine for what I ask it to do.
Okay sports fans, I've got the G3 dual usb up and running. Going to start a new thread on Garageband...
Just wanted to let you know I have the 12" model, but the rest is identical to yours. Panther was WAY faster than Tiger, however I could not get a browser to work well enough to do any browsing. I have a decent enough time using Classilla on OS 9.2.2 though! I ended up splitting the HDD and installing OS 9.2.2 (OS9Lives) on one partition and Tiger on the other.
I have never been one to opt for OS 9, but I think I will use OS 9 on this machine much more than I will Tiger due to the speed. That said, if you do not need web browsing (or if someone here can give you a better option) stick with Panther instead of Tiger. MUCH snappier on a G3.
I have never been one to opt for OS 9, but I think I will use OS 9 on this machine much more than I will Tiger due to the speed. That said, if you do not need web browsing (or if someone here can give you a better option) stick with Panther instead of Tiger. MUCH snappier on a G3.
Thanks for the advice. I have so many OS options. I've got retail Jag, Tiger and panther install discs. I always remembered Panther being fast. As well as 9 of course. Will have to give classilla a try.
Classilla had been around a while, I have simply not tried it until I got my iBook G3 in the mail the other day. I wish I had tried it earlier! Yeah, these G3 certainly support a few versions Also, if you need other OS X discs, they are on macintoshgarden.org as well.
Also, if you need other OS X discs, they are on macintoshgarden.org as well.
Having worked for five years in OS9 and having used it in school before that I can totally understand this.
The one upshot here that makes it easier to swallow for me is Kaleidoscope. At least with Kaleidoscope you can make the interface that much easier to deal with. I was always partial to BBX Mercury
Kaleidoscope is something I have not heard of before. I will look into this. I remember OS 8 and 9 in school, and older System 7 too I believe, but I never used it outside of school for much or anything until recently. I love using it now to play old games "from school days" and my son gets a kick out of them too. I think this iBook G3 will be an OS 9 only machine probably. I have plenty other Macs for OS X.
Kaleidoscope was made by Arlo Rose. He's the first person that started dealing with themes on the Mac. Shapeshifter under OS X was possible because of his work.
And people theme their Macs now because he showed it was possible.
I use it it on any System 7 Macs to make them look like they are running OS 9.
Below is a screencap of OS 9.0.4 running in Sheepshaver on my MacPro at work. I'm including it just to show what you can do with Kaleidoscope.